The Confusion of Mainstream Religion and Its Origins

Mainstream religions often confuse due to historical context, metaphorical language, and a lack of direct mystical experiences.

### Understanding the Confusion of Mainstream Religions: Origins and Misinterpretations
* 🤔 Mainstream religions often seem **confusing and deluded** due to their historical context, originating from a time when humanity was at a **much lower level of cognitive development**, lacking the **scientific understanding we have today**.
* 📜 The teachings of religions like Christianity and Islam were conveyed through **metaphors and stories**, as the majority of people were not scientifically minded and could not comprehend **abstract concepts of God** in a straightforward manner.
* 🕰 When these religions were formed, many followers were unaware of basic facts about the world, such as its **roundness**, and thus needed **accessible language** to grasp spiritual truths.
* 📖 The transmission of religious teachings has been muddied over centuries, akin to a **game of telephone**, where **original insights become distorted** through various interpretations and the limitations of those conveying them.
* 😇 Although figures like Jesus or Muhammad may have had profound insights, the accounts of their teachings were recorded **long after their deaths** by individuals who may not have **fully understood or embodied these truths** themselves.
* ⚖ Historically, religions have also been co-opted by political powers, leading to their use as **tools for control**, which has further contributed to the **confusion and inaccuracies** surrounding spiritual teachings.
* 🔍 To truly understand the essence of these religions, one must engage in **direct mystical experiences**, which can **illuminate the commonalities among different faiths** and help **discern legitimate wisdom from outdated moralistic views**.
* 🌐 Ultimately, the disagreements among religions can often be traced back to **cultural differences** and the **limited understanding of their followers**, highlighting the need for an **integral approach to spirituality** that acknowledges and respects **diverse perspectives**.

why is mainstream religion so confusing, deluded, and inaccurate? Why can't they explain God in a straightforward manner the way that you're explaining it here, Leo? Why all the silly metaphors? Why do they say that God is separate from me? Why are we told to worship God? Why are we told that God will punish us for being bad, and so forth? Religion is a very tricky thing, and you have to appreciate its origin, where it came from. It's very problematic to evaluate religions like Christianity or Islam from a modern perspective. You have to really look at it from the perspective of 2000 years ago when these religions were mostly created. Mankind was at a very unsophisticated level of cognitive development back then. There wasn't even such a thing as the notion of science the way we know of it today. Science, as we know of it today, is really a modern invention, several hundred years old. So, this notion of very carefully, analytically, empirically breaking stuff down, I mean, it exists in certain Buddhist

traditions and certain yogic traditions, but generally speaking, this is a modern notion. So, to expect religions from thousands of years ago to be very precise and scientific and clinical, and also to be very integrative, and also to share modern values, and to not be homophobic, or to not be patriarchal, or to not be moralizing, this is absurd. The era in which these religions sprang forth, most people were at spiral damage stage purple or red at that time. We're talking about very unsophisticated levels of development, and so religion was a vehicle for promulgating the idea of God. But how do you do that with people who are not scientifically minded, people who are not integral, people who are highly racist and ethnocentric, people who are very closed-minded, people who have no sense of the world back then? People didn't even, most people didn't even know that the world was round. Now, of course, the educated people knew, but regular people for whom religion was meant, they didn't know. They didn't even know.

how to read. They didn't know mathematics like they didn't know anything about the world. You have to understand this. So, how do you get these very tribal people to recognize the higher truth of God? Well, you have to couch it in some kind of language that they can understand. So, you're going to use metaphors, you're going to use stories. There weren't even printing presses back then, there were no books, you couldn't even print a Bible back then. So, of course, you're going to use various kinds of metaphors and analogies that make sense for that time. And this stuff was passed down oftentimes as stories, not even written down. And of course, as you're doing this, the people who are passing it down and then writing it all down, these people are not the most enlightened people. So, even though maybe Jesus was very enlightened, you might imagine, or Muhammad was, or the Buddha, or somebody else, these people, they didn't write any books, didn't record any videos. So, Jesus' story was recorded hundreds of

years after the fact, and the people who recorded the story, well, who knows? Different people reported different gospels, various conflicting accounts, and these people who made these recordings, of course, they might have tried to get the gist of Jesus down and his teachings, but they themselves, I doubt, were significantly enlightened. And so, they are filtering it through their own mind, through their own ethnocentric and maybe spiral dynamic stage red or blue worldview, and they're putting it into metaphors and stories that ordinary folks can understand. So, of course, it's going to be confusing and diluted and filled with inaccuracies, of course. And then, of course, the way it works is because these stories get passed down through the ages. It's like a game of telephone where every person talks about God to another person, to another person, so the knowledge gets further and further removed from the direct awakening experience. And how many of these people actually were able to follow the instructions and the teachings of Jesus and actually have, for example, some massive enlightenment?

very few, I would bet. And then how do you talk about it in a way that isn't dogmatic, that isn't overly ethnocentric, that isn't overly moralistic? Because you see, whatever spiral dynamics stage your cognitive level of development is at when you have these epiphanies and realizations, you're going to filter your experiences of God and understanding of God through that lens. Because you have to bring the truth back down to earth and embody it here within a particular country, within a particular era, within a particular community, within a particular culture. And so, uh, because of that, for example, a lot of old religious teachings are very moralistic, and they talk about right and wrong and lawful and unlawful, and they make various kinds of rules against what you should and what you shouldn't do. Because back then, that was advanced for their time. Back then, back then before there were even countries, before there were legal codes, this was actually an innovation to couch morality and law and to ground it with religion. But you see, of course, also what happened.

is that all of these religions and spiritual teachings they become corrupt. The ego and the devil corrupts all these teachings. He uses it for its devilish purposes. So, of course, various kinds of countries and nation-states, rulers and kings got a hold of these religions, started using them to control the masses, started using them to justify their own rule and to justify the various kinds of wars and legal codes and various kinds of things that they wanted for their government. So, you see the ego seizes a powerful tool like religion. If you have a really high-quality spiritual teaching, the ego will seize it, co-opt it, and actually it will become the chief tool by which the devil will then spread falsehood, confusion, delusion, and egotism. And so, that's exactly what happened, which is why I have to be very careful with religions and in general. The whole problem with God is that because it's such a personal and subjective realization that you can't codify it, and you can't spread it through mass means.

you can't write a book that's going to spread it. You can't create a video about it. You can try, but people will misunderstand. And then, even if you do a really good job writing a great book or creating a great video, well, some of your followers, they will just be fanatics, and they will just believe the stuff. They won't actually do the practices because the practices are too hard for them, and they will just believe it. And then, after you're dead, they're going to create a cult, and they're going to perpetuate this ideology. And that's what generally happens with these spiritual teachings. That's why we got to be very careful. And so, you have to learn how to read these teachings properly, sort the wheat from the chaff, and you have to be careful to account for the various spiral stages that are present. For example, in the Bible, so when they tell you to stone homosexuals in the Bible or something like this, you know, you have to be able to say, Okay, with that, that's old

old style thinking from 2000 years ago. We don't do that today, right? You don't want to take that more seriously. But then other parts of the Bible are still legitimate and have legitimate wisdom in there. Next question: why do all the religions disagree so much fundamentally? It's actually amazing how much the religions all agree with each other, considering that they were started in different continents, at different times, by different people, under different situations. There's a shocking amount of agreement between Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and others. That is, if you know how to look and study the texts properly. And then you might wonder, well, how do you know you're studying the text properly? Well, you need direct experience, direct mystical experience. By having these mystical experiences, by having a personal understanding of God, it becomes extremely easy to sort the wheat from the chaff in these various religious texts. And it's also then extremely easy to see the commonalities. A lot of the disagreements can be

explained simply because, like I said, different cultures, different times call for different types of explanations. Religions will stress one thing over another thing because their culture needed that. Religions will also use different language. They will carve up God into different parts because the human mind categorizes things in different ways, and there's various kinds of categorization schemes, not one ultimate one. And because there's so few people that actually have the full awakening experience of God, that usually, oftentimes, they have more minor awakenings, various other kinds of visions and mystical insights and experiences, but not like the full monty. And so, because of that, most people never reach full non-duality, and so then they end up having partial understanding, not a full integral understanding. And also, of course, these religions, they are not integral. They don't seek to understand each other. They always seek to kind of monopolize the truth for themselves. They tend to favor themselves and their own culture while denying other religions and other cultures. So, the attitude of trying to

integrate religions. This is a rather modern notion, which has really only existed for the last 50 or 100 years at most. You

Why Mainstream Religion Is So Deluded

Actualized Clips

Mainstream religion is often seen as confusing and deluded due to its use of metaphors and the portrayal of God as separate from individuals.

The origins of these religions, created thousands of years ago, were rooted in a time of unsophisticated cognitive development and a lack of scientific understanding.

Evaluating these ancient belief systems by modern standards is problematic, as they were designed for a closed-minded and ethnocentric population with limited knowledge of the world.

Spiritual teachings were conveyed to tribal people using metaphors and stories, as there were no books or printing presses at the time.

The accounts of figures like Jesus and Muhammad were recorded long after their lives, often by individuals who were not significantly enlightened.

This led to a dilution and confusion of the original teachings, as the knowledge was passed down through generations like a game of telephone, further removing it from the direct awakening experience.

Understanding God is influenced by one's cognitive development and the cultural context in which they live.

Old religious teachings, while innovative for their time, often became corrupt and were used by rulers to control the masses.

The subjective nature of spiritual realization makes it difficult to codify and spread universally.

The Challenges of Spreading Spiritual Teachings

Spiritual teachings are often misunderstood and can lead to the creation of cults after the teacher's death.

It's important to read these teachings critically and account for their historical context.

Despite the fundamental disagreements, many religions share a surprising amount of commonality, and direct mystical experiences can help in understanding and interpreting their texts.

Religions vary in their teachings and language due to different cultural needs and human categorization.

Most people experience only partial awakenings or mystical insights, leading to a limited understanding of non-duality.

The modern notion of integrating religions and seeking a common understanding has emerged only in the last 50 to 100 years.